Veelind
Veelind, also known as Vemill Lind or Vee, is a near-Human male cyborg. Having struggled with a series of unfortunate incidents, he has found himself at odds with criminal gangs, slavers, smugglers, Jedi, Sith, the Republic and the Empire. Despite a long list of injuries, however, he has endured these conflicts, surviving to impart his unique brand of misery and polite conversation into just about any situation. Biography Childhood Parents With the Jedi Order becoming increasingly insular due to a looming sense of danger from the yet-unknown Sith Empire, Miraluka Jedi Leeba Sorn came to believe that the Jedi no longer acted in the interests of the galaxy's denizens. She rejected the label of Jedi Knight, and departed to conduct acts of goodness on her own accord. Her travels took her to the desert planet of Tatooine, where she fell in love with a human male moisture farmer. Her love of the farmer, however, triggered a series of precognitive visions. She began to see a brown haired man, with whom she had grown an attachment, suffer a series of unfortunate events for his life. Fearing for the life of her new lover, she decided to remain on Tatooine to watch over him. Birth and Abduction Leeba Sorn eventually gave birth to a son, whom she named Augis Sorn. Leeba lived a humble life, though a hard-working one, with her husband and child, even allowing her lightsaber to fall into disrepair. Two years after the birth of her son, however, the farm where the Sorn family made their home was raided by a band of Sand People. The mother and father were killed, but the young boy was taken into their fold. He was raised to speak a dialect of the Ghorfa language, and developed an increased Force sensitivity as a result of his Miraluka heritage. This gave him an intense emotional bond with the tribe that raised him, causing him to feel their emotions as they did. Around the age of 15 standard years old, the tribe decided that Sorn had become an adult, and attempted to free him from their control so that he might return to his people. Sorn, however, had developed so strong an attachment to his tribe that he sought to undergo the ritual to adulthood. They agreed, and as per their ritual, they brought forward a living creature in order force the young man to confront the cruelties of life and death in the desert. Adulthood Trials and Life Among The Ghorfa Sorn was given a human male captive of a recent raid. As part of his initiation into adulthood, he was instructed to torture and prolong the misery of his captive, so that he might see how painful and horrible a death separated from the tribe could be. Unfortunately for Sorn, the captive's begging and pleading resonated in him, as he recognized something of the Basic that he had spoken. His heightened Force sensitivity also caused him to feel the fear and hopelessness of his captive, a series of emotions so traumatic in their perception that he unwittingly disconnected himself from the Force in order to endure it. The captive was tortured for twelve days before he expired. Sorn was forever changed by the event. No longer feeling an emotional or cultural connection to his tribe, he sank deep into depression over the next two years. Overtaken by guilt and hopelessness, he left his tribe to wander into the dunes to die. Capture and Slavery Eventually collapsing due to dehydration and heat exhaustion, Sorn was found by a party skiff owned by an unknown Hutt gangster. Curious as to the nature of Sand People, the gang recovered him from the sands and inspected him, discovering to their disappointment that he was not a natural-born Sand Person. Nonetheless, they fit him with a shock collar and physically and psychologically abused him to break his spirit, until it was decided that he could be used to make money in underworld deathmatches. Sorn's combat training among the Sand People, including a very unique form of wrestling, enabled him to win several fights to the death, often without a weapon to aid him. After fighting and killing a wookiee, he managed to remove one of his opponents claws and smuggled it away to his cell. After seven years in slavery, Sorn found a method to disable his collar, and used the wookiee claw to kill many of his captors before confronting the Hutt in charge of the criminal family. In a broken smattering of Huttese, Sorn made a bargain: Freedom in exchange for the Hutt's life. Terrified into submission, the Hutt agreed to release Sorn from his slavery, offering him a job with a distant relative on Nar Shaddaa. Sorn was given transport to a human-established spaceport, where he investigated Sand People raids on human settlements. It was there that he learned of a raid that took place on a moisture farm. There were no survivors, save for a missing infant named Vemill Lind. Believing himself to be the missing child, he adopted the name and left for Nar Shaddaa. Nar Shaddaa As the newly-named Vemill Lind, the former deathmatch fighter took up a job as a bouncer for a brothel run by a gang called the Kintan Kings. During this time, he befriended and fell in love with a red-skinned Twi'lek slave named Nolaa. After two years of working for the brothel, Lind decided to take a loan from Bareesh Fenn'ak Torill to buy her freedom so that he and Nolaa could be married. Torill, however, was the leader of the Kintan Kings, and saw in this loan an opportunity. By giving it to Lind, Bareesh had in fact condemned both Nolaa and Lind into a lifetime of employment in an attempt to pay off the debt. For six years, Nolaa and her beloved Vemill Lind (whom she called "Veelind" as a term of affection) worked and slaved to that end. One fateful night, however, changed everything. A Cathar pirate whom had acquired Nolaa's services in the past had approached the former slave in order to buy her services. Nolaa declined, but the pirate ignored her denial and acted against her. This angered Veelind, who blindsided the pirate in a dark alleyway. The pirate ferociously fought back, taking Veelind's left eye with a lucky swipe, but the former deathmatch champion ultimately ended the Cathar's life with a durasteel pipe. Nolaa's reaction to Veelind's injury drove her into a deep depression. She purchased a blaster from a black arms dealer and, after recording a tearful goodbye to her husband, ended her own life so that he might one day earn enough money to escape from Nar Shaddaa. Veelind had set himself to end his own life as a result, but was distracted by the sound of a group of Kintan Kings mercilessly beating a human offworlder outside of his apartment. Veelind emerged from his apartment, hysterical from his recent misfortunes, and gunned down the gangsters, saving the spacer's life. He then left for the brothel where he had met Nolaa to continue his rampage, the spacer following behind him in gratitude. Together, the two men shot and killed many members of the Kintan Kings in a firefight that saw Veelind wounded and dying by its end. The spacer dragged Veelind to a street doctor who managed to save his life, and then offered him a job aboard his ship. Veelind took the offer as a way to give his wife's passing meaning, as it would allow him to escape from Bareesh Torill as she wanted him to. Veelind and his new employer, the Mantellian J'aycen Aguara, boarded the ship called Liberty and left Nar Shaddaa. Life Aboard the Liberty Veelind acted as enforcer, security and friend to his new employer J'aycen Aguara. The spacer took odd jobs on board his freighter ship Liberty in an effort to fund a personal campaign to locate his brother, with Veelind keeping a constant watch for danger. Together, they smuggled families, animals and other cargo across the galaxy, always being wary of those who would try to do them harm. It was during this time that J'aycen introduced Veelind to his second great love: Alcohol. Unfortunately for Veelind, this amusing pastime soon became an addiction. So much so that he often spent his waking hours either getting inebriated to wallow in the pain of his departed spouse, or trying desperately to sober up before performing a job of vital importance. One such job left a significant mark on Veelind: A call for help from a wookiee named Kryyshka left both Veelind and his employer in tears. The wookiee's son, Rothgwarr, had been abducted by an unknown force, and she pleaded for someone to help. Their investigations had uncovered a brutal black market trade run by criminals from Darvannis. The gang had made a practice of abducting sentient beings, then selling their pelts to the highest bidder. It had been too late for Rothgwarr, but Veelind managed to convince his friend to help Kryyshka avenge his loss. The duo took up arms at a Darvannis cantina filled with ruthless murderers and thugs, and managed to abduct the man whose marketing campaign helped to make the skin trade possible. Veelind then borrowed J'aycen's protocol droid "Rusty" in order to record what happened next. The former adopted Ghorfa utilized all of his methods of torture that he had learned from his days in the Dune Sea, as well as from horror stories of J'aycen's days in the Mantellian Civil War, to ruin and ultimately end the life of the black marketeer. The holovid of the proceedings was released on the HoloNet. Though it was quickly taken down by Republic and Imperial authorities, it had circulated long enough to send a message to the Darvannis skin trade. Kryyshka was grateful to Veelind and J'aycen for discovering her son's fate, as well as punishing those who had been responsible. As thanks, she gave to Veelind a bowcaster that her husband had once used in his youth. To this day, the weapon remains one of Veelind's most treasured possessions. Eventually, Veelind's bout with alcoholism became the deathknell for his and J'aycen's relationship. J'aycen's funds that he had amassed to help find his brother were being diverted to fuel Veelind's addiction. The spacer responded by purchasing a five year lease for an apartment on Coruscant, and left Veelind behind with the hope that he would one day find a better reason to live. With a solemn farewell, the two parted after their two years of friendship. Coruscant and the Justicars Veelind spent the next few years living in a Coruscanti slum that had become rampant with crime following the Great War. He often worked odd jobs for members of the community, happy enough to take payment in enough food to survive, or alcohol to forget his troubles. During a particularly drunken day in his 42nd story apartment, he dangled himself by his legs out of his window and performed stomach crunches, the idea being to stay in shape while feeling the cool air outside. Unfortunately, he was unable to get back up into his window, and called out for help. A budding group of vigilantes, known as the Justicars' Brigade, had to enter the apartment to rescue him. The Justicars, being composed of ex-law enforcement and military personnel, saw potential in Veelind's physical condition and his hatred of unnecessary cruelty. They hired him into their ranks, even paying for a cybernetic implant to make up for his missing eye, and together they patrolled the streets of what came to be known as the Justicar Sector of Coruscant. Veelind in particular had been instrumental in bringing down a massive spice-smuggling operation in the sector by tracking distribution routes of illegal drugs. Noticing that the position of distribution locations coincided with garbage pickup routes, Veelind and a band of Justicars hijacked several hovercars designed to haul refuse and crashed them into the streets below. They discovered, to their delight, that Veelind was right; the vehicles had been transporting large amounts of spice throughout the city. No major property damage or loss of life occurred as a result of the operation, causing Coruscanti law enforcement officials to struggle with finding a charge to level against Veelind. For failing to pay a massive fine, and to appeal the charge in court, Veelind became the only being in the galaxy to have a Republic-wide call for his arrest due to littering. The Tatooinian's time with the Justicars turned sour, however, after an increasingly zealous mindset began to overtake the vigilante gang. One particular incident involving a spice-smuggling operation left a child smuggler dead, leading Veelind to resent his comrades' methods. He obtained a syringe and filled it with enough spice from the Justicars' confiscated wares to overdose a human being, then injected the full amount into the Justicar responsible for the child's death as he slept. Said Justicar died overnight, and Veelind retired from their ranks the next day. Veelind returned to his apartment, and to performing odd jobs for the community, for the next several months. This changed, however, when an old friend came to visit. The Hunt for Darth Trugen While attempting to sleep off a hangover in his apartment, Veelind received a knock at the door. To his surprise, J'aycen Aguara had returned to visit him. The two exchanged pleasantries for a brief period before J'aycen revealed the purpose of his trip: to bring Veelind out of retirement to hunt down a Sith Lord named Darth Trugen. Trugen, in reality J'aycen's long lost brother Alder Aguara, had grown weary of his younger brother's attempts to turn him away from the Dark Side. As a result, Trugen lured J'aycen to Voss and threatened the life of a woman with whom he had fallen in love, the Twi'lek soldier Brinla Ruun. Not wanting to endanger Ruun's life, nor wanting to give up on saving his brother, J'aycen turned to someone who could be counted on to keep tabs on Trugen. Veelind agreed, and J'aycen transported him to Carrick Station to purchase a ship and some equipment to begin his journey. It was at Carrick Station that Veelind first met Elysindre Moonshadow. Over a series of encounters with the Captain of the Sure Thing, he came to consider "Ms. Elysindre" and her compatriots as friends. J'aycen Aguara eventually discovered that Darth Trugen had established a psychic link with him, and traveled to Voss's mysterious Shrine of Healing to remove it. Veelind followed close behind, discovering that Trugen had also visited the planet to observe his brother's actions. Veelind took the opportunity to plant a tracking device on Trugen's ship, the Broken Link. Shortly thereafter, he engaged in an altercation with Trugen's apprentice Meina Tetch, which left him unconscious after a vicious Force Throw. Veelind regrouped with J'aycen offworld and learned that Trugen had withdrawn his threat against Brinla Ruun's life. Veelind agreed to stop pursuing the Sith Lord, but kept track of the Broken Link's flight patterns with his tracking device. Arrest Veelind's time socializing with others eventually took an effect on him. In particular, discussions with Brinla Ruun had convinced him to quit drinking alcohol. Unfortunately, years of addiction had taken their toll, and the substance's sudden removal led to an acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome. His behavior became increasingly erratic, and he began to suffer from visual and auditory hallucinations. At one point, it was discovered that Brinla had befriended a man whom had previously been the source of injury and misfortune for Elysindre and her ward Kjel'kia Mjer'kendall. Not wanting to see harm come to his friend's lover, Veelind angrily commanded the man to leave Brinla alone, and publicly threatened harm to his friends in potential retribution. The altercation took place on Carrick Station, where a chief security officer, Commando Darman, had been patrolling. Darman arrested Veelind at gunpoint and escorted him to a cell on board the station. When news of the arrest reached Elysindre, she instructed her friend, Major Enias Blacksun, to organize a holocall to determine the nature of Veelind's actions. Enias was joined by Jedi Master Kelvarius. Kelvarius, who was unaware of Veelind's disconnection from the Force, came to believe that the criminal's pursuit of Darth Trugen had allowed the Dark Side to affect him. An arrangement was made to give Veelind transport to Tython so that he might recover from his condition, rather than stand at the mercy of the Republic's legal system. In exchange for this leniency, Veelind submitted his track record of Trugen's ship to the Jedi Order, though the Jedi found little use of it: the data had been recorded as a series of unintelligible audio grunts in the Ghorfa language. Recovery on Tython During his transport to Tython, Veelind received a visit from Brinla Ruun, who comforted him in an hour of physical and mental duress. Unfortunately, his mental state was further unbalanced by a visit from Twi'lek ne'er-do-well Nulaa Ulair, who confronted him about the outburst that had led to his arrest. Being a friend of the man whom Veelind had threatened, Nulaa demanded that he stand down. He agreed, but only under the condition that she convince the man to leave Brinla alone. Veelind became a resident of the medical bay of Tython's Jedi Temple, where he met once more with Elysindre Moonshadow. Elysindre had been receiving treatment due to a mental instability caused by a Sith entity that had been forcefully removed from her mind. Veelind's friendship with the Captain of the Sure Thing deepened following a near-fatal confrontation involving Enias Blacksun, and he began to open himself up to a desire to recover from his condition. Though he took wholeheartedly to treating his physical symptoms with a cocktail of multivitamins, Veelind resisted his therapists' attempts to delve into his past. Onig Varum, a Jedi Master who made his name researching Voss healing techniques, had begun taking a direct interest in the criminal's recovery process. Unbeknownst to the Jedi Order, however, Varum and his Padawan, Nellos Amen, were murdered and being impersonated by Darth Trugen and Meina Tetch. The two Sith had previously adopted their Jedi identities to siphon ancient knowledge from the Order, but were now actively undermining Veelind's faith in his Jedi caretakers. Despite this, Veelind nonetheless befriended and cooperated with Jedi Knight Dassalya Nasadee, who challenged the false Varum's methods of treating Veelind as less than someone in need of help. Veelind smuggled himself off of Tython to assist Brinla Ruun in fighting alongside T.H.O.R.N. during a rakghoul outbreak on Tatooine. J'aycen Aguara was also present for the conflict, having been caught onworld during a poorly-timed delivery for Balmorran Arms. It had also come to Veelind's attention that Darth Trugen had made his way to Tatooine, and so he left for Mos Ila spaceport to place a second tracking device on the Broken Link. To ensure Veelind's safety, J'aycen hired Nulaa Ulair -- whom he had previously worked with -- to find and watch after him. Together, Nulaa and Veelind succeeded in planting a tracker on Trugen's ship, and the two shared a celebration at a cantina. The festivities were cut short, however, after an argument left them both in a depressed and bitter mood. The emotional scene stirred Veelind's former connection to the Force, and he felt something call out to him from the Dune Sea. Unable to pursue his intuitions, however, he returned to aid T.H.O.R.N. in quelling the outbreak. Dassalya Nasadee then escorted him back to Tython to resume treatment. The Moltok Incident Under J'aycen Aguara's advice, Nulaa Ulair hired Veelind to act as caretaker for her ship, the Naeera. Veelind accepted the job, but only if she paid him with a free trip to Tatooine. An uneasy, though friendly, relationship developed in the days that followed, with the Twi'lek determined to break through Veelind's cold exterior. The two shared a tentative farewell as she left to engage in private business that had seen months of planning. Waiting for her return, Veelind became increasingly depressed and unstable due to prolonged isolation, barely keeping his sanity by monitoring his thoughts in a journal. The silence was broken, however, when Nulaa sent a pair of messages back to her ship. Her plans had awry, and she ended up being captured by a slave smuggling gang on Moltok. Veelind left the Naeera in J'aycen Aguara's care and took control of Aguara's ship Liberty to head for the volcanic jungle world. His confidence shaken by weeks of solitude, Veelind expected that he wouldn't survive the encounter, and contacted his friends Elysindre and Dassalya to bid them goodbye. Dassalya assisted Elysindre, along with Kelvarius and Enias Blacksun, to leave Tython to follow Veelind. J'aycen, meanwhile, informed Starschwar Senal and Xerxesian -- who had been involved in Nulaa's plans -- of the Twi'lek's predicament before departing to investigate a space conflict that saw Brinla Ruun missing in action. Elysindre, Enias, Kelvarius and Veelind stormed the planet Moltok in search of Nulaa Ulair. Starschwar and Xerxesian raced to establish a perimeter around the planet's volcanic atmosphere. In the spaceport, five freighters full of slaves began making their way offworld. Though two were brought down by Kelvarius and Veelind, two others departed, with a third preparing to make its escape. Confronted with the thought of losing Nulaa, the unbalanced Veelind suffered a nervous breakdown and shot the third freighter out of the sky -- with many of the captive slaves still aboard. Veelind made his way past a score of dead slaves, approached the pilot of the downed vessel, and tortured him as Kelvarius tended to the wounded. The Jedi confronted him, forcing him to stand down. Veelind, emotionally and physically exhausted, returned to the Liberty as the others stayed to save the surviving slaves. The two freighters which had escaped were met by Starschwar and Xerxesian, who disabled them with Ion Cannons. They were soon met by an Imperial vessel commanded by a Human Sith named Vedriat, who demanded that they allow her to collect something from one of the disabled ships. The pilots refused, making a dash for the Imperial vessel to harass it. Meanwhile, Kelvarius, Enias and Elysindre piled the surviving slaves on board one freighter. Using the Force to aid its ascent, they broke away into space. Veelind, back aboard the Liberty, found renewed vigor from seeing the disabled freighters. He recovered the slaves aboard, including Nulaa Ulair, as Vedriat was forced to retreat. Led by Liberty, the slaves were freed on Garqi and given a chance to work on the planet's caf bean farms. Preparing for Tatooine Trivia * Veelind was affectionately given the nickname "Manners" by Twi'lek freelancer Nulaa Ulair, although she more commonly referred to him as "Patch". This resulted in the pseudo alias "Patch Manners" occasionally utilized by Veelind.